Thursday Oct 11, 2007

A Link in the Chain: The 'Top 15' vision

Posted by Gidi Grinstein
Comments: 5
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Next month will mark the one-year anniversary since the Reut Institute officially launched its socioeconomic policy team guided by the 'Top 15 Vision'. Personally, this is a milestone and a vision that came full circle.

The Top 15 Vision began with a project of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation that took place between 1997 and 1999. Representatives from many sectors of Israeli society were invited to outline scenarios for the future of the State of Israel in the year 2020.

Within this framework, Ms. Raya Strauss, one of Israel's leading industrialists, Mr. David Brodet, Former Director General of the Ministry of Finance, and I joined together to develop a scenario for Israel in the year 2020 titled "Being Among the Top 15 Most Developed Nations". This scenario was presented within the framework of the project.

A few years later, after having served in the Bureau of the Prime Minster (1999-2001), I received the Wexner Israel Fellowship and spent a year at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. I decided to devote the year to a personal project that dealt with the question of how to implement the Top 15 Vision.

Most of my courseload during that year cultivated this project. I studied a range of courses such as development economics, management of political systems and theories regarding the leadership and management of change. I devoted my spare time to consolidating these insights. I sketched them and wrote about them, 80,000 words in total.

The Vision has been on Reut's agenda of the Reut Institute since its founding in January 2004. I knew that at some point I would employ our unique methodology to the realm of Israel's socioeconomics as well. Last November, after two years and eight months, that day arrived.

To date, our team has two women and four men; 2 new immigrants (Olim Hadashim), 4 full-time analysts, one part-time and one intern. Their average profile is age 29 with a minimum of graduate degrees in a very diverse range of areas (engineering, sociology, economics and development economics, business, history and political science).
 
The team's early work focused on identifying the TOP 15 Agenda which comprises the issues most critical for leapfrogging Israel's quality of life. In recent months, most of our work has focused on strengthening Israel’s competitiveness in terms of brains, technology and investments and introducing the usage of sophisticated cross-country data that allows decision-makers to compare Israel’s performance to other countries.

We have been invited to offer our unique decision-support services to the Ministry of Finance and the National Economic Council and I believe we have been realizing our mission to offer decision-support services on topics that have been off their radar screens. I hope that we will ultimately be as successful in this sphere as we have been in the area of national security.

The Top 15 project represents a coming of a full circle. It is also a milestone in the long journey that began nearly nine years ago and will end hopefully within no later than fifteen years when Israel joins the club of the Top 15 most developed nations in the world.

Gidi Grinstein is the founder and president of the Reut Institute.

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1  |   max roytenberg, Friday Oct 12, 2007

Out of Israel will come the word and the truth from Jerusalem.

The goal is better achieved with a map!

How beautiful are the tents O Jacob, thy dwelling places O Israel.

Israel must continue with an open gate and welcome for the Jews of the diaspora, remaining a the nexus for the brains, resources and enterprise of our people everywhere. This dynamic is a crucial elament of Israel's development

2  |   Jo Ellen, Friday Oct 12, 2007

The Top 15 project sounds very exciting with the 'understanding' that the world partners share the 'Vision' of the Reut Institute stand-for positions and principles.

3  |   Yeshiva, Saturday Oct 13, 2007

That should be any other Top Vision on Israel, with an Israeli Outlook Widely Open like Windows On Israel will be by 2020. Israel will then ALL BE TAKEN SO DEEPLY INTO THAT "HOLY LAND", OF HONEY being DEEPLY TAKEN right into ist ASS!

That too is a sort of BIG ASSessment!!

4  |   Yeshiva, Saturday Oct 13, 2007

Hopefully JPost itself can surf to the indicated website, to see WHAT will be happening to Israel (what's already so usual in some other Arab nations) if a DECISION is not TAKEN SOON (about WHAT it will do ITSELF about THIS CONFLICT!

5  |   RAY FLOYD, Saturday Oct 13, 2007

may god bless all your efforts

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A Link in the Chain Founder of the prestigious Reut Institute, Gidi Grinstein, blogs about his vision for Israel and 21st century Zionism.

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